How was your day at school? Today’s Post!

How was your day at school?

Beware you might find out a lot more than you bargained for! Today’s Post” is a talking activity for children, powered by the written word. What is it about writing stuff down that makes people take more notice? And who doesn’t like getting a letter or two?!

One of my earliest teaching memories is asking students to use the front (not back door) of the classroom at the end of my lessons. Days and weeks went by and they never seemed to listen. Then one day I wrote a note saying “Please use the other door” and stuck it to the back door. Every single students obeyed the sign. Just weird.

Maybe they thought somebody scary had written it. Or maybe writing things down simply carries a bit more welly. A bit of clarity perhaps. Either way, “Today’s Post” activity has certainly generated a lot more chatter about their school days than normal. It has been relaxed, happy and fun 🙂

N.B. If you’ve not got a postbox that really doesn’t matter! If you’re feeling crafty you could make one out of a cereal box, otherwise just grab a “post bag” or a hat!

So how was your day at school? Instructions for “Today’s Post” Activity.

Sometimes the simple things really are the best. All I did was write down 8-10 questions on different coloured bits of paper. At bedtime the boys took turns choosing and answering first (they both answered all the questions).

Whilst getting ready I gushed to the boys excitedly about hearing about their school days, and they seemed keen to tell us and try a new activity.

Open ended questions were by far the best with who, what, why and how questions being the most popular.

Try and avoid questions that can be answered with a one word answer or simple yes/no. I got some BRILLIANT ideas for questions from the mother.ly website linked here!

Some sample questions from http://www.mother.ly (linked above) for this talking activity are pictured above. Some of the questions were quirky and some straight forward; we all enjoyed the variety.

The boys definitely enjoyed the extra chatting and I loved hearing more about their days at school. I literally heard all sorts of stuff!

To sum up

Written open ended questions, an obvious excitement about finding out about their day and a means of delivering their mail are all you need. Be it a postbox, a bag or whatever you dream up!

Time to say hello?

So whilst I always ask the boys how was your day at school, I often find it tricky to really get them talking about school. As a result I am always on the look out for more ideas; I would love to hear about anything that you do to get your children talking 😁. And if you do try this activity it would be brilliant to hear how you got on in the comments or over on Instagram or Facebook. Thanks for stopping by!

Click below for another bedtime, self esteem boosting activity!

Another chatty one to follow! My favourite and most effective bedtime fix is just around the corner!